Torn - Part Four (The Torn Series) (4 page)

“That’s just ‘cause if I drop in it means sex might be on the table.”

“Soon,” I assured her, shifting my body to test my side. There was still pain, harsh enough to make me dizzy if I wasn’t careful.

She stood on her toes and kissed my cheek. “Don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of other things I can do to you.”

I was trying not to think too much about those “other things” when we finally reached my building. Tony was waiting in the lobby, scowling, toying with his phone. He stuffed it away when he spotted us.

“Look at the happy couple,” he said.

I passed Riley my keys. I didn’t want her to have to listen to him. “Go on up ahead of me,” I said, “This’ll just be a minute.”

She looked between the two of us before agreeing and getting into the elevator. I waited until the doors closed her away to speak.

“What the fuck do you want?” I didn’t have the usual force behind my words. I was just tired of fighting with him. It was getting really fucking old.

“Is that any way to greet your big brother?” I shrugged. “Dad’s pissed about Thanksgiving.”

“I care why?” And why the hell was Tony spending time with the old man, anyway?
Because he was the favorite.
Even if he was beat on too, he was the favorite.

“He wants to come to our fight.”

“I know that,” I said, “You already dropped that bomb on me, remember?”

“Yeah. Okay. Honestly I just came here to gloat over your arrest,” he smirked, looking me up and down. “How was prison? Drop the soap?”

“I didn’t go to prison, and soap jokes are old as shit and fucking offensive. Get with the times, bro.”

He snorted. “Bro?”

“Just trying to speak your language.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, raising his hands and showing his palms. “Enough. I heard you were injured and I just wanted to come see. I’d rather reschedule than have an unfair fight and listen to you cry about it when you lose.”

“Aw, you were worried about me?” I sneered. When he didn’t answer with a sneer of his own, I relented. “I’ll be ready. We don’t need to push the date back again.”

I was a little surprised that he actually seemed concerned, though I was sure his concern was entirely selfish. He wouldn’t want to fight me if I wasn’t in top form, just like I wouldn’t want to fight him if he were injured. If nothing else, we wanted a fair match.

“What are they charging you with?” he asked.

“Trespassing. Fighting in public. There would have been a longer list of charges if they’d caught me with any money.”

“Well,” he said with a shrug, “None of those are felonies.”

“Why are you so interested? So you can fill Dad in on what a criminal I am?”

“Yup,” he grinned.
As if you don’t have a record
. “I was just curious. These things don’t get busted all that often. Not like that, at least.”

Finally, I gave in to my curiosity. He didn’t seem to be as interested in a confrontation as usual. “How was Thanksgiving? Any of Dad’s family get in touch?”

Tony’s eyes flashed with anger, but he quickly cooled. “No. His aunt called, I guess just to confirm that he’s still alive.” If he had more family than her and his now-deceased parents, we’d never met them. Whether it was because our father and his parents were outcasts or that the Catones just weren’t ever a tight-knit family, we didn’t know.

“Did you go to his place?” I refused to call it home. It wasn’t home anymore. It stopped being home after Mom died.

“Yeah,” Tony said, “Still the same old shit shack.” He ran a hand through his hair. “He wants to see you.”

“Why? Does he need money?”

“Probably.” He shrugged. “He said to tell you to show up for Christmas. There. That counts as passing his message, so, pardon me while I get the fuck out of here.” He pushed passed me to reach the front doors.

“I’ll see him at the fight,” I said, “I don’t need to see him before that.”

“Do what you want,” Tony said, waving over his shoulder without turning.

What was that supposed to mean? Was something going on with Dad? I wasn’t interested in calling to find out, but Tony was my only other source of information.

They were just baiting me into something. Money, an argument, who cared what it was. They were after
something
. Why couldn’t Tony just make a phone call like a normal person, anyway? Compose an email? He didn’t need to see me.

I was still mulling it over when I got upstairs and found Riley watching television with Lockett.

“No black eyes,” Lockett said, “I guess the meeting went okay.”

“As okay as ever,” I said. Riley gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head.
Not now
. “Wanna order take-out?”

○●○●○●○●○

I finally ran the encounter by her after we ate and Lockett went out for the night, off to work some bouncer gig in the city.

I left out my suspicions that my father was after money and just confessed my confusion. “I don’t get why Tony still hangs around there.”

“Because he’s family?” Riley suggested. “I mean, I don’t know all the circumstances, but that’s just my guess.”

I hadn’t filled her in on very much about my past, about Tony’s and my childhoods. She didn’t need to hear about that. The present was all that was important, anyway.

“I just don’t get it,” I said, laying back on my bed with a groan. Riley knelt over me, straddling my legs, wearing just a tiny pair of shorts and a tank top that bared the tops of her breasts. The girl was trying to kill me.

“Some people just get stuck,” she said softly. “I think he’s a lot like my sister in that. My mother uses her but she just can’t seem to make herself leave, no matter how bad it is for her.”

“I don’t think they’re the same,” I said, “Tony’s still looking for the old man’s approval, even now. It’s fucking depressing.”

“And Katherine’s just scared,” Riley said, nodding.

“Let’s not talk about them anymore,” I said, running my hands up her bare thighs.

“Hands off,” she said, swatting them away. “Let me take care of you.”

“You’ve done enough already,” I said, though I didn’t fight her. She was unbuttoning my jeans - I’d be crazy to argue.

She carefully pulled them and my boxers down my legs and let them fall to the floor. I was already hard - I didn’t even know what she had in mind, but it didn’t matter.

“You’re too good to me, baby,” I said as she slid me between her lips. I clenched the sheets as I tried to hold myself still. “Fuck.”

Her mouth was pure heaven. She moaned around me, adding the vibrations of her voice to all that wet heat. I hated that I couldn’t move the way I wanted, that I couldn’t do the same for her.

Or maybe I could. I let her go on for just a minute longer, savoring every sensation as she began working me even deeper, sucking gently, caressing me with her tongue. Much longer and I would explode right down her throat. As appealing as that was, there was something I wanted more.

“Stop,” I said, gently pushing on her shoulder. She pulled away, releasing me from the warmth of her mouth. I groaned at the loss. “Take your pants off.”

“Mal-”

“Quiet. Take them off. I want you up here.” I pointed at my head.

“Huh?”

I laughed at her confusion. “I want you to kneel over my face, baby.”

“Oh.” She blushed. I’d seen her wild streak before, she was hardly shy in the bedroom, but
this
made her blush? I felt oddly proud that I’d managed it.

She tossed her little shorts aside with a coy smile, though her cheeks remained red. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Get up here.”

“’Cause I wanted to take care of you.”

“You are. I need you to come on my face.”

“Shit, Mal!” she said, grinning broadly, “You’ve got the filthiest mouth I’ve ever heard.”

“You love it.”

“I do,” she said, though her eyes flickered away for a moment. I bit my lip before I said anything more. Before I went all mushy and said something truly stupid.

Instead I took her arm and tugged her forward. She complied, crawling up the bed. She placed one knee to either side of my head where I pointed, baring herself above me. My mouth watered.

I tugged on her hips and she lowered herself down to where I could reach her. Propping up my pillow behind my neck, finally, I drew my tongue through the soft folds of her sex.

She moaned out loud. The sound was immensely gratifying, like music to my ears. Some people found joy in symphonies; I found it in the song of her desire and her pleasure.

The taste of her was intoxicating. I stroked myself as I attacked her most sensitive spots, sucking, nibbling, zoning in on the places that made her moan the loudest. Her hands found my hair and pulled, holding me tight against her. I was surrounded by her scent and her warmth. I was drowning in her.

I climaxed hard and fast when I heard her start to pant. Groaning, writhing into the mattress, oblivious to the pain, I brought her over the edge and memorized the sound of her cries, my name spilling so sweetly and passionately from her lips.

Fuck, the girl would turn me into a romantic if I ate her out too often.

“Shit,” she said. Her thighs shook as she moved aside and dropped to the mattress next to me. “Oh, my God. Mallet.” She still trembled, overcome by the force of her orgasm.

She curled up at my uninjured side and buried her face in my neck. “If you’re conjuring up some funny comment-”

“I know,” she said, “Don’t make you laugh.” She loosed a shaky breath. “I can’t think of much of anything right now, anyway. Good God.”

I chuckled and I winced. “Mmm, you think that was good, just wait until I’m healed.”

“Oh, I plan on sticking around for it.”

I wasn’t consumed with all the shitty things I felt about my brother or my father thanks to her simply being around. My problems with them faded when she was with me, when we were alone like this. She could stick around for as long as she liked. If I had my way, she’d never go. She’d stuff my drawer with her things, my closet with her clothes. She could leave her socks and her earrings on any and every surface.

The idea of her moving in was a scary thought. Exciting. Right. But a little scary.
Not yet
, I told myself,
That’s definitely moving too fast
. But the thought was there. I listened to her snore softly as she dozed off for a moment.
Eventually
. Sooner than later.

First I needed to be less of a fuckup. And I needed to end this rivalry with my brother. We’d never be friends but would couldn’t keep going for each other’s throats.

Once that was solved, though… I squeezed her tight. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago I’d been trying to push her away again. To kick her out of my apartment and my life.
No more screw-ups
, I promised myself, and her, though she couldn’t hear me. I was all in.

But was she? She seemed to be. But I hadn’t gotten the stamp of approval from her friends, yet, and I knew with lots of girls that was pretty damn important.

I wasn’t worried about that, though. If there was one common thread through the Catone men, we knew how to turn on the charm.

CHAPTER 5

The healing process was frustratingly slow, but it was happening. Every day hurt a little less. Soon I’d be able to practice again. God knew I’d need to - I was ready to start climbing the walls. Going from practicing and sparring six days out of seven to doing little to nothing at all for a couple weeks was quite a lifestyle adjustment, to put it lightly.

On top of that, I found myself oddly stressed about meeting Riley’s friends. I never had any problem introducing her to mine. Mostly it was because she was involved with Surly’s sister’s band so we had mutual connections, and also because I never expected anything between us to last.

I met her at work. It was a week after I’d spoken to Tony in my lobby, and I was still bothered by how he’d left things. Not bothered enough to seek him out, but bothered. I’d never been to Picklebackers before and almost had trouble finding the place. It was one of those “too cool” places without a sign out front.